3.5. SR 02-03-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Wednesday, January 29, 1997 / Elk River Star News / 5 City considers two laws to deal with park closin'g by Joni Astrup Associate editor Dis/urbed over Earl Hohlen's lack of progress in negotJa~ng with residents of his mobile home park, the Elk River City Council has unnulmously ordered two ordJnnnces to be · One ordinance would allow residents to be paid the appraised value of their home plus $900 in moving costs. · The other ordlunnce would allow residents to be paid the assessed value of their mobile home plus $900 in moving costs. They also could keep the title to their home. But City Attorney" David · Sellergren cautioned the city that he would 'have to research that option... "That doesn't feel quit~ right to me;" he told the council last Duitsman MacGibbon extensive sum of money." "There's no way that he (Hohlen) can sit down and write a check for the sum total of all the'se numbers," Mac- Gibbon told the City Council. 'If it comes to ~hat, then this enterprise or project,~I thlnk~ is doomed." .:_ · Hohlen 'has a purchase· · agreement with' Associated Developers, but MacGibbon said the deal has not yet come to closing.. -ti fi - week. It might be one way to "The vibrations I hear !i get to'a reasonable ~n~ncial. tonight suggest we tr~y not 5:[ setflemenf~ but it might be an come to a closing," MacGibbon egal. · ' way." '~ told the council. ill'he ordjnnnces were to b~b Park tenants in the audience considered by the City Council[ b]~med Hohlen and. Mac- ~i& )nFeb. 3. But Monday night,[ Gibbon for the lack of the City Council ch~_nged the[ progress. '.. mee~n~ date to Feb. 18 at 7~ Tenant Heather Bergnmn p.m. ~ ' .' . ' ~said re.ny residents have met The city is wai~ng in the " 'wings as Earl and LorrMr~. Hohlen and their attorney, John MacGibbon, attempt to negot.~ate with residents so the Elk Terrace Mobile Home -" Park can be closed to m~ke · way for a commercial develop-' ment.' The l~ailer park is located at the corner of Highway 169 and Main Street in Elk River. MacGibbon told the City Council last week ~hat at the rate negotiations with ~rmnts are going, the nmt~er won't be settled by the targeted closure date of June 24, 1997. ii'He said the I-Iohlens have met with a 'good manf' of the residents, who have furnished them with what they feel would be a fair buy-out price. He said +.h~_t total is 'an' with MacGibbon and given him the figures he asked for, but negotiations have not hap- pened. Tenant Duane Lundeen said Hohlen told him and ter~nt Curt Julius ~hat he would buy them out, but ha~n't. "Didn't he, Curt? Didn't he?" Lundeen asked Julius. Weah, he did," Julius replied. · ' ~That;s a lie, boy, and you know it," Hohlen responded i~rom the audience. And so it went More than 30 mobile homes remain in the park. The assessed value of the homes is es~mnted in the $325,000 rnnge. MacGibbon told the council that the Hohlen's have been offered $1.25 per. square foot for their land, which includes the eight-acre trailer park. For the trailer park alone, that would amount to a selling price of about $450,000. 'You've got no one else to blame but yourself' Whether the city wi].[ step in and determine what is a fair payment for park tenants renmins to be seen. "This is a no-win situation for the City Council because this is not a development that the city is pushing in any manner or form whatsoever," Mayor Hank Dultsrrmn told park tenants at last week's council mee~ng. 'Ifs strictly a matter between Earl and you people. It doesn't seem. like you're being treated fairly but. · . I don't .think the City Council is in a position to determine what a fair payoffis for you people." The City Council held a pub- lic healing on the park closure in November, as required by s~te law. .'. The council agreed in November to revisit the issue in January and had hoped to see some progress in negotia- tions between Hoh]en and his tenants. "We gave you this time to come up with a proposal and you're coming here with noth- ing, actually, tonight," Duits- man told MacGibbon and Hohlen. ' But MacGibbon Said the ~act that they don't have a solu- tion, doesn't mean there has: n't been work done on the issue. Duitsman, however, wasn't moved. ~You're forcing the city to m~ke a solution tonight," he told MacGibbon. "That solu- tion, I don't ~.hlnk, is golruj to be beneficial to your'client if the project doesn't go for- ward because of ttmt, I think you've got no one else to blame but yourself."